HDD

[rs6mra]

Hi Guys,

Am I able to set up FreeNAS with a single 3Tb HDD in a microserver Gen8 enclosure with FreeNAS running off the internal USB which i have just managed to install.

 

[Spearfoot]

Hi Guys,

Am i able to set up Freenas with a single 3Tb HDD in a microserver Gen8 enclosure with Freenas running off the internal USB which i have just managed to install.

Hello! Welcome to the forum.

Yes, you should be able to run FreeNAS on an HP Gen8 microserver.

You can also do this with only a single disk, but this isn't a good idea as such a configuration offers no redundancy, i.e., if the single drive fails you will lose all of your data. It would be much better to acquire an additional 3TB HDD and create a mirrored vdev using the two drives, creating your pool with this vdev. This would give you redundant storage, which is more-or-less the whole point to using FreeNAS.

Good luck!

 

[rs6mra]

Thanks for your prompt response which is appreciated.
My reason for using Freenas is so that i can install Plex.
I have always thought it pointless to have a RAID set up in the home environment which is what i believe you are referring to as in 'mirrored vdev'.
What i intend to create is a backup for the drive.
So based on fact that this is feasible is there a guide line to setting it up with a single disk as all the videos and instructions seem to be for multiple discs.
Secondly what position will I be in if I were to add a 2nd, 3rd or 4th HDD in the future; is it likely to force me to have a RAID type/mirrored vdev type set up?

thanks once again.

 

[Spearfoot]

Thanks for your prompt response which is appreciated.
My reason for using Freenas is so that i can install Plex.
I have always thought it pointless to have a RAID set up in the home environment which is what i believe you are referring to as in 'mirrored vdev'.
What i intend to create is a backup for the drive.
So based on fact that this is feasible is there a guide line to setting it up with a single disk as all the videos and instructions seem to be for multiple discs.
Secondly what position will I be in if I were to add a 2nd, 3rd or 4th HDD in the future; is it likely to force me to have a RAID type/mirrored vdev type set up?
thanks once again.

If you don't plan on using FreeNAS as safe, redundant storage -- which is, after all, the purpose for which it is intended -- consider that you might be better served using Linux instead.

In any case, you can use the wizard or follow the instructions in the documentation to create a single-disk pool. You can add additional drives later without being 'forced' to use a redundant scheme -- but, again, this defeats the whole purpose in using FreeNAS. What you would end up with is multiple pools, each the size of the hard drive used to create the pool.

EDIT: I misspoke here; you could expand the pool when adding later drives, so you wouldn't necessarily end up with multiple pools.

(Pools are created from one or more virtual devices ('vdev') and virtual devices are created from one or more drives.)

 

[Mirfster]

Secondly what position will I be in if I were to add a 2nd, 3rd or 4th HDD in the future; is it likely to force me to have a RAID type/mirrored vdev type set up?

You will be in an even worse place than you have already put yourself in...
Instead of the risk of just that one disk dying and taking out all the data on it, you have compound the vulnerability. Now if that "one drive vdev" is part of a Pool along with those other "one drive vdevs", it will not only kill itself when it dies... it will kill the entire Pool.

Congrats, you have now turned your system from a simple "suicidal manic" to a "suicidal manic armed with a nuclear warhead". :P

 

[rs6mra]

Thanks once again for your advice guys.
Would the likes of Ubuntu server be my best option to have Plex installed?

 

[Spearfoot]

Thanks once again for your advice guys.
Would the likes of Ubuntu server be my best option to have Plex installed?

You're welcome!

Plex doesn't specify a particular version of Ubuntu in their installation instructions. I suggest snooping around the Plex forums to see which version experts recommend.

Good luck!

 

[rs6mra]

You're welcome!

Plex doesn't specify a particular version of Ubuntu in their installation instructions. I suggest snooping around the Plex forums to see which version experts recommend.

Good luck!

Cheers. Already on to it..............

 

[Jailer]

Would the likes of Ubuntu server be my best option to have Plex installed?

That or a plain FreeBSD install. Plex is available in the FreeBSD package repository.

 

[rs6mra]

That or a plain FreeBSD install. Plex is available in the FreeBSD package repository.

Smashing and Cheers!

 

[philhu]

I would have the bandage ready for when he shoots himself in the foot :)

 

[rs6mra]

I would have the bandage ready for when he shoots himself in the foot :)

Too late as the rifle is back in the gun cabinet ;)

 

[Stux]

It's not a bad plan really. You benefit from FreeNAS' appliance features, and it's scrubbing and error checking. If you have a backup.

Eventually you can add a couple more disks and go to raidz1 (restore from backup). Or go to a pair of mirrors.

 

[philhu]

Plex runs beautifully on Centos 6.4 in a VM on ESXI

That is where I ran it before moving it to a jail on FreeNAS. One good thing is freenas jail sees disks locally, so network really doesn't come into play to slow down transfer, like on Ubuntu or Centos in a VM or box

 

[Richard J2]

Could I respectfully offer an alternate opinion. I have been running a home-brew server for years to store ebooks, home videos, videos, photos, backups of PC's and so on as you are considering. Freenas is fantastic. My backup is an off site usb drive that I keep in the garden shed well away from the house. A couple of times I have run out of space and just added another drive to the Freenas server, run the wizard and it then looks like the original drive has increased. Freenas will tell you it would like another drive well before it requires. I figure if I have a fire or earthquake or burglary then a backup in the garden shed may be better. I know it will break some day, but so what.

Freenas is fantastic. My box has sat trouble free in a cupboard running non stop for years. It can do anything and as time goes by you can grow into it but you do not need to even fully understand what you are doing at the start because there are wizards that will produce a result.

Freenas can do anything. I can download or upload books or videos onto my cell phone from the other side of the world.

I realise this may be heresy for guys who are using it to run huge operations and like lots of redundancy but in a home environment where if it's down for a day or two while I replace the broken part and reload everything is not really the end of the world.

Before I retired I paid thousands annually for Microsoft networking. Freenas is better and is free. The updates come regularly for free and the wizard just installs them.

My networking knowledge is so deficient I have no idea what I am doing half the time - but it's always in the manual and most times there is an automatic wizard to do it.

Freenas really is fantastic. It seems to run on almost anything. When I first looked at it years ago I installed it on a pc sitting around the house that I had not got around to throwing away. When it worked ok I then just got one of the recommended parts list off the site and took it to the local computer parts shop and replaced the internals. I now have a perfect server for an embarrassingly low amount when I think about what I paid in the past.

I suggest you get an old pc from the next church fete you go past and give it a go. You will soon know if it's for you - and I bet it is.

I am so grateful for the guys who know what they are doing who constantly improve it.

Sent from my SM-N930F using Tapatalk

 

[CraigD]

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

PLEX works on almost any hardware

FreeNAS will work on older non-recommended hardware without redundancy, the setup will work, until it doesn't, then everything could be lost

I guess this is slightly better than a Linux or Windows PC with spanned volumes due to ZFS scrubs, unless your Linux distro supports ZFS then it the same

If you run any setup without redundancy, a backup is not a recommendation it is a requirement

Is the cost of another drive a deal breaker?

Have Fun

 

[snaptec]

Sorry,
Even If you run a Setup with redundancy a Backup is a MUST.
Just a freenas with raidz2 or whatever is a good start, But you still Need a Backup.


Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

 

[rs225]

Yes, agree on backups.

I recommend raidz1 instead of raidz2, because after all, you Do Have a Backup. And if you don't, this advice probably bothers you; because you have no backup.

I do understand that raidz2 makes sense with wide vdevs, but then, wide vdevs aren't recommended either. ;) And when I see raidz3, I know you're either desperate not to backup, or desperate not to restore.

 

[rs6mra]

3 failed attempts at installing Ubuntu, several failed attempts at FreeBSD and went back to Freenas and I no longer get the message: This is a NAS data disk boot system. System halted!
So back right where i started.
I have no idea why it would now let me install Freenas from a USB stick - would it have anything to do with the initial installation having written something to the HDD?

As mentioned initially, i have backups and in fact 2 backups of my files. One in the garden office and another that is off site. If a drive fails then a day or 2 to rebuild is no skin off my nose.
Ideally i would like to proceed with FreeBSD due to the fact that Spearfoot did mention that Freenas was developed to be used as redundant storage.

So can anyone please advice if Freenas would have written data to the HDD? If so then i can see why it would not allow me to boot anything else.

Update - I seem to recall when creating a pool I included the HDD as the first time it did not work when i selected USB. If this is what is causing the issue am i right in thinking that i'll need to reformat the HDD to avoid any conflict?

 

[Spearfoot]

So can anyone please advice if Freenas would have written data to the HDD? If so then i can see why it would not allow me to boot anything else.

Try deleting all partitions from the HDD before you attempt to install any operating system -- the "This is a NAS data disk" error message means the disk contains partitions.